The use of performance-enhancing steroids in professional sports has been around for a while. As time moves on and new technology develops, athletes are finding newer and more subtle ways of illegally enhancing their bodies.

Perhaps the most well-known, controversial use of steroids in pro sports is with Barry Bonds. As we all know, Bonds holds the record for the most Major League Baseball home runs of all time. But for many years, Bonds was allegedly using steroids under the radar. It’s still a debate to this day whether or not he deserves the record, or if Hank Aaron should have the crown. In my opinion, Bonds should have his record stripped and Hammerin’ Hank should be at the No.1 spot. As far as we know, Aaron played clean baseball and all of his homers were due to his hard work and dedication to the game, rather than due to fake, illegally enhanced muscles. Aaron played in a time when baseball was about the enjoyment of the game, and steroid use wasn’t around as much because the technology wasn’t there yet.

Another, more recent example of steroid use in pro sports is Lance Armstrong. Armstrong recently had his seven Tour de France titles stripped after he admitted to doping over the years. This was the most shocking case of steroid use I had ever seen, especially because I grew up watching Armstrong winning all of the Tour races and he was a hero to everyone. He was such an inspiration to other cancer stricken athletes, only to admit years later that he had been doping the whole time. I still don’t really know what to believe with this case.

This just goes to show that as of right now we can never be absolutely sure that our favorite pro athletes aren’t illegally using steroids. It’s unfortunate that pro sports have come to this, but I have learned to just accept it and not have it ruin the fun of watching the pro level. Yes, I do believe all of the professional leagues should do a better job of testing and penalizing players, instead of keeping most cases under the radar so they can keep their star players and also keep their loyal fan base. But either way, I am going to continue to enjoy watching professional sports, whether athletes are using steroids or not. The way I look at it, there is probably an athlete or two on each team in every league that is doping so it almost equals itself out in the end.